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Shakespeare And An Irritating Problem At The Ranch Pen

In observation of National Poetry Month, I was looking around the internet to put together this post on Shakespeare’s Sonnet 29, and a thought struck me like a bag of bricks on the head as things sometimes do (almost literally if I’m not wearing my glasses) and–actually that reminds me. Since the frame of my glasses split over my left eye, my eyebrow tends to get caught in the crack and pulled. So unfortunate. Now I need new frames and who wants to waste a bunch of time trying on new ones only to buy a pair they will surely hate every time they startle themselves in the mirror? Not me. Excuse me one second while I jot down a note to myself on my kleenex…

Okay, I’m back. Where were we…Ah, yes.

I have always thought Sonnet 29 particularly apt to the farmers and ranchers who make their livings off the land and are totally at the mercy of the heavens (weather). In reading different commentaries on the internet, however, I realized Shakespeare’s words mean something different to everybody but most people can find something with which to identify in Sonnet 29. I hope you can too.

Sonnet 29

When in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyesI all alone beweep my outcast state,And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,And look upon myself, and curse my fate,Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,Featured like him, like him with friends possessed,Desiring this man’s art, and that man’s scope,With what I most enjoy contented least;Yet in these thoughts my self almost despising,Haply I think on Thee, and then my state,Like to the lark at break of day arisingFrom sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven’s gate;
For Thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings
That then I scorn to change my state with kings.

~William Shakespeare~

Until next time, God bless all y’all and enjoy David Wesley singing this amazing Amazing Grace medley.

[youtube.com/watch?v=8plSomxS5Yo]

*This artist doesn’t necessarily endorse my blog, I just love his singing and the songs.